"First thing's nomination of officers," announced the chair. "Shoot in some names, yuh guys!"
"The patrol leader's got to be a first-class scout," grinned Gray. "Stand up, Windy! I move the nom'nations be closed!"
"Here, hold on!" Fred sprang up at once. "I'll only be here a few weeks, kids. What's the use? One of you had better—"
"Aw, beat it." "Sit down!" "Cut it out!" came from the others. Dunk gained the floor.
"Second the nomination, Mr. Chairman! Let's make Windy leader while he's here, anyhow."
"All in favor?"
"Aye." And Fred was elected. Carlito was then put up against Gray for assistant, but the New Yorker promptly withdrew and the young Apache got the honor. The boys were then sworn by Fred and Gray together, and the patrol was a fact.
"What we goin' to call her?" asked Fly. Various titles were proposed and voted down but finally Carl came across with "The Thunder Bird Patrol." This was greeted with a yell of delight, and was chosen without delay.
"Oh, Windy!" called Jerry from a swing at the other end of the veranda. "Chase out to the kitchen and tell Hop Sing to give you the rattler lariat, will you? This swing needs tying up."
Fred promptly rose and vanished, suspecting nothing. At Fort Bayard the men had a standing joke on all tenderfeet. They sent them all over the fort asking for the "rattler lariat"—which is slang for whiskey—and as whiskey is a thing forbidden at the fort, the unhappy tenderfoot usually ended up under arrest. The crowd on the porch expected that Hop Sing would catch the joke as he had done before, and send Fred out to the bunkhouse or corral to some of the men who would send him on farther.